29-Apr-2014Label-free, sequence-specific, inexpensive fluorescent DNA sensors
Using principles of energy transfer more commonly applied to designing solar cells, scientists at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a new highly sensitive way to detect specific sequences of DNA, the genetic material unique to every living thing. As described in a paper published in the journal Chemistry of Materials, the method is considerably less costly than other DNA assays and has widespread potential for applications in forensics, medical diagnostics, and the detection of bioterror agents.

7-Apr-2014Generations of supercomputers pin down primordial plasma
Brookhaven Lab's Lattice Gauge Theory Group hunts for equations to describe the early universe and the forces binding matter together. Their search spans generations of supercomputers and parallels studies of the primordial plasma discovered and explored at Brookhaven's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.

4-Apr-2014Tracking the transition of early-universe quark soup to matter-as-we-know-it
By smashing together ordinary atomic nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, scientists recreate the primordial soup of the early universe thousands of times per second. Using sophisticated detectors to track what happens as exotic particles emerge from the collision zone and 'freeze out' into more familiar forms of matter, they are turning up interesting details about how the transition takes place.

3-Mar-2014Particle beam cancer therapy: The promise and challenges
Advances in accelerators built for fundamental physics research have inspired improved cancer treatment facilities. But will one of the most promising -- a carbon ion treatment facility -- be built in the US? Participants at a symposium organized by Brookhaven Lab for the 2014 AAAS meeting explored the science and surrounding issues.

20-Feb-2014Brookhaven Lab's Jian Wang to help understand rainforest atmosphere dynamics
US Department of Energy researchers are joining scientific collaborators from the US, Brazil, and Germany to launch a two-year field study in the Amazon Basin. Data obtained during the Green Ocean Amazon (or GOAmazon) field campaign will enable scientists to study the intricacies of the natural state of the Amazon rainforest atmosphere and land systems and how these may be perturbed by human influences such as pollution and deforestation.

16-Jan-2014Top 10 Brookhaven Lab breakthroughs of 2013
2013 was a banner year for science at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratoryfrom our contributions to Nobel Prize-winning research to new insights into catalysts, superconductors, and other materials key to advancing energy-efficient technologies.

7-Jan-2014The play-by-play of energy conversion: Catching catalysts in action
Before catalysis unfolds in a laboratory, scientists painstakingly assemble the materials and spark a reaction. But many experimental techniques only capture the static details before and after the reaction. Now, researchers at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have demonstrated an unprecedented ability to peer into the dynamic, real-time reactions blazing along at scales spanning just billionths of a meter, producing a sort of play-by-play view of the chemistry in action.

16-Dec-2013Small size enhances charge transfer in quantum dots
In a study just published in the journal Chemical Communications, scientists at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, and Syracuse University show that shrinking the core of a quantum dot can enhance the ability of a surrounding polymer to extract electric charges generated in the dot by the absorption of light.

6-Dec-2013Tiny drops of hot quark soup -- how small can they be?
New analyses of deuteron-gold collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider indicate that collisions between gold ions and much smaller deuterons, designed as control experiments, may be serving up miniscule drops of hot quark-gluon plasma.

26-Sep-2013Supercomputers help solve a 50-year homework assignment
A group of theoretical physicists has solved half of a 50-year homework assignment -- a calculation of one type of subatomic particle decay aimed at helping to answer the question of why the early universe ended up with an excess of matter.

18-Sep-2013Supercomputing the transition from ordinary to extraordinary forms of matter
Supercomputing calculations plus experimental data from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider are helping scientists map out the nuclear phase diagram. This research offers insight into the transition of quark-gluon plasma to ordinary matter -- which mimics the formation of visible matter in the universe today.

The Department of Energy's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.